Cuff-Link Staff Q&A and a Couple of Polls

It’s been a while since we’ve done a staff Q&A for the benefit of the users, but we figured it’s time again.

Among answering whatever questions you want, any subject allowed, we are tossing around ideas to implement a couple of features as well, so we’d like to use the announcement of a Q&A session in #cuff-link to also get your input and views on whether we should bother with the new features. But first!

The Q&A will be held November 27, 2016 at 19:00 UTC [11:00 PST | 13:00 CST | 14:00 EST | 19:00 GMT | 20:00 CET | {Day Change to November 28, 2016 for the following time zones} 06:00 AEDT | 04:00 JST] — we’ve got it set to last for 1 hour, so please try to have your questions ready at the start and we’ll address them in order.

The two features:

One is something called “oper prefix”, which would give opers a special symbol next to their names in all channels. We would probably use a * to signify this.

The ! = OJoin, which is when we join a channel and gives us the ! symbol as well as outputs the message “Has joined on Official Business.”Oper Prefix looks like this.

Some users have expressed that it’s difficult to tell who the opers are at any given time at a quick glance, and this would allow them to do so. However, we cannot pick and choose which channels it’s displayed in, and while one or two clients Just attach the symbol and would put us in the userlist based on whatever our actual status on the channel is, most clients would put us at the top of the list, as you see above in the second image.

Oper prefix is an all or nothing signifier of who we are without you having to /whois. The caveats are that users may confuse us for chanops, which we don’t want, and would work to make sure everyone knew that all it meant was that we are network staff and that we cannot be kicked from channels. Owners and chanops would have to ask us to leave if they’d prefer we not be present [which is what we expect now as it is, but you can /kick us if you wish].

The other feature that we have been thinking of offering is the “commonchans” user mode onconnect. This would prevent anyone outside of a common channel with you from sending you a PM. Unlike +g, which prevents others from sending you a private message without you sending the /accept +nick command to the servers, you would not be forewarned and asked to allow the person. This also means that if you wanted to use the mode, people you talk with regularly who may not sit in the same channels as you would not be able to get through, since it’s an all or nothing mode as well. Note: this mode is already available using /mode yournick +c if you would like to try it. Keep in mind that if we put this as an onconnect mode, you would then have to shut if off using /mode yournick -c command.

We’ve set up a poll to ask whether you want one, both, or neither of these features, and you can find it here: https://goo.gl/forms/SA9miTSlhJDPOsxP2 [will open in new tab, or should, and you must be signed into Google in order to respond to the poll so we can have a modicum of control over people only responding once, but to protect users’ identities and make it as anonymous as possible, we have shut off email address and username collection.]

Please comment below as well. We’ll be checking both the poll and the comments prior to the Q&A on the 27th.

***NOTE:After the results of the poll for the common channels module we will hold a second poll during the Q&A to see if there is interest in providing that mode on connect with the option to remove it yourself much like the current set up for hiding your channel list from other users.

4 thoughts on “Cuff-Link Staff Q&A and a Couple of Polls”

I appreciate and understand your wanting to make things easier as opers to be identified but as a channel owner I do not like the new idea of you identifying as such and putting your nicks at the top of the list. The reasons being one, it will have the appearance you are in control of the rooms and as you said, you said, you don’t want that nor do we. We work hard to make the rooms ‘ours.’ Second it will have the appearance to anyone new when they walk in that the room is FULL of admin types. We pride ourselves on not having a ton of OPs. Nothing is more off putting then when you enter a room and 1/3 of it is OPs. It gives the impression the room is full of trouble and needs to be staffed that way. We have a lot of opers in our room and want them there but having them pointed out per se also is off putting to those who don’t necessarily know you’re already there. I love you guys but I hope you keep it as is.

common channels seems to pretty much dictate who I can talk to and who I can’t if the mode is set server wide.. and I have to unset it each time I connect.. it means I have to and the person I want to talk to has to. and that is unlikely to happen.. since I cant see what rooms they are in since its blocked.. and I cant pm them to find out.. so therefore I cant talk to them.. that is a good way to make people lose friends they have made.. since the mode is available now with /mode yournick +c why force it on people that don’t want it… I think the choice should be ours .. so I hope you leave it as it is.. and let us enjoy chatting with ALL of our friends